Agua

I haz it...

...but it wasn’t pretty.

Let me explain:

Back in the early part of the year, we got a notice from the boro that, starting in the spring, they were going to lay a new water main down our street. The boro Water Guy came over, and made sure that the connection coming into the house was copper. It was.

Then, nothing.

About six weeks ago, they started putting in the new main, and I got a visit from Water Guy. Seems there was an issue.

The place in which I live is the eastern most of three old row houses. Every building on every street has their curb box (“water shut-off”, or just “shutoff”) pretty much directly in front of the building. For reasons, ours was in front of the townhouse next door.

Water Guy made a good case for moving it to the front of our place, where it should actually be. He pointed out that, should something fail, we would need to dig up the sidewalk in front of the neighbor’s place to repair it. When I heard that, the word “liability” jumped to mind. (Remember, I’ve raised an attorney.)

He came in and looked around the basement. All we had to so (he said) was punch an iron pipe thru the foundation wall out to the hole where the box would be. Once that was done, we shoved copper pipe out to the shut-off, and hooked everything up. Piece of pie. Easy as cake.

Oh, and he wanted us to move the meter from the back wall of the basement to the front, thereby eliminating the possibility (and temptation) to tie into the line before the meter.

So, they boro digs out to the front of my porch/edge of the sidewalk, the plumbers come out, punch the new hole, insert the copper, move the meter, hook everything up, and go have lunch.

Did I mention that this place was built well before the boro was incorporated in 1881? It was.

The boro got the line in and ready. They started doing the connections from the west of the block eastward, on the side of the street opposite me. What with the rain and all, it took the contractor about three weeks to get down to the east end of the project.  In the meanwhile, I had made arrangements with Saunders Plumbing to rearrange the furniture in my basement and get us hooked up to the new shutoff. I handed them off to Water Guy to coordinate schedules. I must give them both great props for their communication with each other, and with me. 

So, this Monday (10-3), I get an email from Water Guy, who tells me that the contractor is going to start at the west end of the street again, meaning they are going to install the new shut-off on Monday.  Just to close the loop, I called Saunders, who told me they were expecting a three day notice, so they wouldn't be out until Wednesday (yesterday).  I ping Water Guy, who assured me that I would have water until the change over, and then I would have water again. So, it was All Good.

The plumbers, Joe and Ron, showed up at their appointed time yesterday morning. I gave them the 25 cent tour of the basement, and took them out to the sidewalk.

And the fun began.

The first thing we noticed was that the boro had not dug back to  the wall, like they said the would. This upset Joe mightily, who the words with Water Guy.

Discovery of the under-sized hole.

The discussion underway at the plumbers' truck.

My email to Deb:

So, right now, my guys & the city are 'discussing' who is going to dig out the rest of the hole.

Aaaand, we're off. 

Water Guy said that they would come over after break and dig things out some more. Push back project start to 10-ish. They do, and everyone convenes in the basement shortly afterwards.

Digging out the rest of the hole. On-site Water Guy on the left.

Next email, titled 'Doubt it's good...':

…when the Water Guy walks out of the house saying "This day keeps getting better and better…"

Some raised voices outside now. 

 Turns out, there are no accurate drawings of where things actually are. Like the connection to the (very fragile) sewer. Which is not a couple of feet over from where Joe and Ron need to punch thru the wall, but almost right under.

Sadly, I admit that my reaction was a bit less than charitable:

Starting to sound like a CF of epic proportions.

I laugh...

 From the last email I sent:

First pass at drill pipe too steep an angle. After about 4 hours, gave up, sank second pipe. Work progressed from there.

At the moment, unmetered water. Borough needs to come out (tomorrow?) and install it. They are supposed to reattach antenna, too.

 Next-to-last email at 7:28 PM, titled 'Plumber':

Is pulling away from the curb.

So, what was actually a four hour job took eleven and a half hours, not counting lunch.

Water guy was here this morning, and I'm back on the meter. (Good thing I filled the 1,000 gallon cistern last night!)

Before and after basement pictures below the fold:

The Heating Saga

Absent the previous post, I haven't been doing much here.  I got slammed with work over the Holidays, and just needed to have a mental vacation.  Plus the New Year has plumbed depths of evil and insanity heretofore pretty well unknown.  (I'm looking at *you* Moslems and *you* Barack Obama.)  So my writing energy (such as it is) has been focused on the other blog.

So.  Sometime last November, I ordered the four radiators, thinking that I'd have heat for Christmas.  If' you've read the previous post, you might infer that I in fact have no heat.  You would be correct in your inference.  Thus, the saga.

Dee, the nice lady at Runtal agreed to break up the payment into four easily digestible chunks.  This due to the fact that we are using a debit card, with a $1,000.00 daily limit.  The payments were going thru OK,  OK, that is, until I got an e-mail from Dee saying that the last payment kept getting declined.

There was about twice as much money in the account than was needed, so it wasn't a funds problem.  I called the bank in Texas, and the nice lady there looked into the problem for me.  It turns out there was a "zip code mismatch" on the transaction.  Runtal had used the delivery address here in PA as the billing address, which should have been Deb's address in Texas.  I called Dee and left a message with the pertinent information, and she called me back in about five minutes to tell me the transaction went through.  Yay!  The really interesting part about this (to me, anyway) was that she had used the PA address on all of the previous payments, and the bank had (obviously) taken them.  Finally, then, the order was sent to customer service for fulfillment and shipping.

All of that took place the week before Christmas, so I wasn't expecting anything right away.  I *was* hoping for heat by New Year's, but no.  I got  call a week ang a half ago from the shipper, to set a delivery appointment.  We agreed on the 4th, and they would leave them on the front porch in my absence.  I got a call on the 4th asking to reschedule to the 5th, which was fine.  The 5th came and went, no radiators.

When I called the next day, the conversation on the shipper's side was mostly about why they couldn't deliver to me.  I used my loud indoor voice with the agent, and they finally  agreed to get the shipment to me that day.  Which they did.

Here is the e-mail thread I had with Runtal about the whole fubar:

Hi, Wanda,

Thanks for getting back to me.  I understand the issues involved, it was just an experience about "Why they couldn't deliver", rather than "How can we?"  And, they did get the equipment delivered Wednesday afternoon.  They put it on a bobcat instead of a semi, and the driver and I were able to get off the truck and into my yard.

I plan on starting installation tomorrow!

Thanks again,
Lee

On 1/8/2016 2:13 PM, Wanda wrote:

Hello Lee,

I am sorry for all of the issues with the trucking company.  Unfortunately our experiences with each of the trucking companies varies from region to region.   Most of the trucking companies are accustomed delivering to commercial location, where there is a staff to unload the trucks.   The drivers only expect to pull up and open the back door of the trailer.    UPS is much more customer friendly, but will only take packages up to a certain size.   Our larger units due make for a difficult residential deliveries.  I do appreciate your comments and will speak to the sales staff to insure certain shipping details need to be pass on at the time of the sale to the customer.

Hopefully your units have been delivered and all is well.

Regards,

Wanda

Runtal North America, Inc.

187 Neck Road

Ward Hill, MA 01835

P. 800-526-2621; F. 978-372-7140

www.runtalnorthamerica.com

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lee Webber
Date: January 6, 2016 at 9:28:34 AM EST
To: Diana
Subject: Re: Runtal Order

Hi, Dee,

I'm sitting here, on hold with the delivery folks, who just can't seem to get my radiators delivered.  They were originally scheduled for Monday, but they called to re-schedule for yesterday.  And they weren't delivered. Because of 'parking problems'.  Now they tell me that I have to be home because the driver can't carry them by himself.  Which would mean that I wouldn't have heat until next week.  It's currently in the teens here.  I've solved their parking problem for them, and I'm not looking at re-arranging my schedule to accommodate.

Update: the lady at the shipper says that there is no lift gate on the truck, which is why the driver needs help. This company is more excuses than performance.  They will get them out to me today (they say), as long as I am willing to help. 

You might want to reconsider using them in the future. Worse. Than. Useless.

Happy New Year.  I'm looking forward to warm.

Thanks,
Lee Webber

P.S. Please feel free to pass this along to the shipper, as I don't have their e-mail.  lw

So, if you have read the previous post, you are completely up-to-date on the heating situation here in Red Lion.

More, later!

Customer Service 101 (Updated!)

Update:   One of the replacement DVDs arrived in yesterday's mail.  Looking worse off that the one pictured below.  I called, and they are going to sent out Yet Another Copy of "Tesla, Master of Lightning".  I'm wondering if I will ever get to watch it.  And more extra DVDs are supposed to be on the way!

I just received the second in a row busted DVD from Netflix today.  Like the previous one, it was almost cracked in half, from the center out to one edge (I finished the job to put it out of its misery!):

Since it was the second in a row, I gave them a call.  I told the nice young man what the problem was, and gave him my account information.  We agreed that the problem could be anywhere, and also agreed that it sounded like some handling equipment that was out of whack.  So, their job now is to figure out where the out of whack machine is, and get it fixed!

He asked me to call them directly if it happens again.  That way, they can get more info than the on-line form provides ("It's broken", basically).

And for my trouble, he is sending out an extra DVD.  (He also hinted that if I were to call again, I could probably get another extra DVD!)

As such things go, that was pleasant.